Users employ software applications to search for, view and modify information resources. These individual software applications have varying capabilities for automating user actions to finding, filtering, analyzing and updating the information resources.
Without automated support for processing results displayed by the underlying software application, achieving desired objectives can be very time consuming and mentally taxing for users, for example requiring them to copy reference identifiers, mentally memorize and compare displayed results to satisfy a set of conditions they hold in their mind. Automated support for such operations will enable users to be much more efficient and effective. Demand for such automation is significant and will only increase with the continued expansion of information resources available on the Internet. Users need tools that enable them to make wider comparisons of displayed results in less time, for example, by eliminating duplicate results and automating aspects of item comparison through interactive overlays they can easily customize.
Furthermore, the advent of devices with smaller screen sizes and mobile devices make it more difficult and time consuming for the user to achieve the same results than with a large screen. These disadvantages can be offset through the same layered automation approach as outlined above.